§2a Reapportionment of Representatives; Time and Manner; Existing Decennial Census Figures as Basis; Statement by President; Duty of Clerk

Summary

The President must, on the first day or within one week of the first regular session of the Eighty‑second Congress and every fifth Congress after that, send Congress a statement listing each State’s population from the seventeenth and later decennial censuses (excluding Indians not taxed) and showing how many Representatives each State would get if the current total number of Representatives were divided by the method of equal proportions. No State may get fewer than one Representative. For the Eighty‑third Congress and until a new reapportionment takes effect, each State gets the number shown. Within fifteen calendar days after getting the President’s statement, the Clerk of the House must send each State’s chief executive a certificate of that number; if the Clerk can’t, the Sergeant at Arms must do it. Until a State redraws its districts under its own law, the State must hold elections as follows: if the number of Representatives does not change, use the current districts (and any at‑large seats stay at‑large); if the number increases, elect the extra seat(s) at large and keep the others by district; if the number decreases, compare the number of existing districts to the new total—if they match, use the districts; if there are fewer districts than seats, elect the extra seat(s) at large; if there are more districts than seats, elect all Representatives at large.